Android launches another "killer" feature that can reclaim 60% of storage space

Nowadays, smartphones are carrying more and more functions, so users need more and more storage space. However, for users of mid- and low-end phones, storage space is limited. They often need to uninstall the apps that are currently installed in their phones in order to install some new apps, thus freeing up space on their phones.

Google introduced the function of uninstalling infrequently used apps to Android a few years ago. This function can prompt users to uninstall apps that have not been used for a long time to free up space on their phones when the phone capacity is insufficient. However, this function also has a disadvantage, that is, for apps without an account system, uninstalling the app will cause data loss (some users only uninstall temporarily and reinstall it later).

Fortunately, Google has recently developed a solution that is expected to solve this problem faced by users. Under the new solution, when users need more space on their phones, the Android system can remove some components of the application (without completely uninstalling the application, only partially uninstalling) while retaining the user's core data, and the user can restore it at any time. This feature is called app archiving by Google, and it can reclaim about 60% of the application storage space.

This feature requires developers to actively adapt, which will bring more work to developers to a certain extent, but after adaptation, it will also reduce the probability of users completely uninstalling the app, increase the activity of the app and even the payment rate. Developers do not need to worry too much, because Google does not force applications to support this feature. If you do not want to adapt, you can choose to ignore this feature.

If the application supports this feature, users should be able to activate the app archiving feature in some way, but Google has not yet detailed how to activate this feature in the Android Developers Blog (one guess is that when the user uninstalls the application, a pop-up window will appear, asking if you want to archive it to free up storage space).

The new app archiving feature will be available to developers using App Bundles as part of Bundletool 1.10 (the latest version is 1.8.x). Applications built with Android Gradle Plugin 7.3 will include the new archived APK. According to the current development plan, this feature will not be launched until later this year, so this feature is expected to arrive with Android 13.

App archiving seems to be a very useful feature, especially for phones with very small storage space, especially entry-level Android phones sold in relatively less developed areas. As we all know, major domestic Internet companies are relatively slow to adapt to new features of the Android system. Will they actively adapt to this important feature?

This article is reproduced from OSCHINA

Title of this article: Android launches another "killer" feature that can recycle 60% of storage space

Article URL: https://www.oschina.net/news/185951/android-app-archiving